The Chase
"Stop!" his sister shouts. "Soph, we can't stop, can't you feel the heavy miasma of dark energy heading towards us?" Ellis throws the frantic question back at her from the front of the saddle. In the distance, there is a black mass of what Ellis can only guess to be a thick, black smoke coming from the direction they need to go, Alcone. He turns the horse to the right, shouting to his sister over his shoulder he says, "hold on!" and he brings the horse into a full gallop.
"AHH!!" she screams. Then, "I know, idiot, but I need to check in my pack something feels burning hot on my back."
"Fine, but we need to move than we can look for a place to hide once we are out of this grassy flatland." Ten minutes of looking, Ellis finds nothing for miles but long, golden grass all the way to the horizon. Dejected, he pushes the horse even faster. Even though he can feel how much the horse is tiring. "Come on boy, just a little farther," He encourages the horse.
On top of everything, when Ellis looks back to check on the massive, ominous cloud and to make sure his sister is okay. Once he does, he turns forward again; and the grass farther in front of them, is flattened with what can only be a huge storm on the horizon. "Soph, can you get something out of one of our packs to cover us for the oncoming storm that is about to hit us," he shouts behind him to his sister. In moments, he feels a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and covering his head while only using one hand to hold it into place and the other to hold the reins. "Take cover, this is going to be rough," he yells.
"On the bright side, at least it looks like the black cloud behind us is disapparating," Sophia yells back.
With the storm about to hit and nowhere to take cover, not to mention the disappearance of the black cloud, Ellis puts the search of proper cover on hold. Ellis stops the horse in its tracks and dismounts. When his feet are firmly planted on the ground, he turns around and takes Serena from his sister's arms and places her on the ground beside him, then he helps his sister off of the horse. Immediately, the horse instinctively lies down to brace for the storm. Taking a cue from the horse, the siblings huddle down together with Serena between them and the blankets around them for protection to wait out the storm.
Getting battered by storm for what felt like hours, suddenly all feels calm. Lowering the blankets, the brother and sister look out and see a massive sky filled with a million shining stars. Ellis looks over at the horse to see it lying on his side. He stands reluctantly and walks over to check on the horse. Making sure the horse is okay, turning around to see that his sister and Serena are passed out on their blanket. Rolling his eyes, he spreads his damp blanket out intent on staying up and keeping watch.
Next thing he knows is that it is morning, and he is being shaken awake by his sister.
With a quick breakfast, they walk up to the horse and find that he is not moving. Ellis lays his palm on his shoulder and the horse jerks up and instantly but slowly stands. Once they are all settled in the saddle, they continue on.
The morning is so bright, Sophia, who is holding Serena, sits up front to guide the horse and to keep an eye out for some sort of shelter, or at this point, maybe even a town. Being in back, Ellis ends up falling asleep with his head slumped against his sister's back. With all that has happened and all they have went though, it is no wonder that as soon as he closes his eyes, he is immediately locked in a dream:
He feels the sensation of wind blowing across his face and through his hair. Opening his eyes, he sees that he is flying with the ground far beneath him. There are mountains far in the distance in front of him. It takes a moment to understand that something about his field of vision is different, that it has a red hue to it. Finally, he starts noticing the heat, it is so intense that it is on border of suffocating. The last thing he takes note of is the sound, almost like a rumbling, before he can find out what and where the sound is and where it is coming from…, he wakes up.
Throwing his eyes open, he finds the horse has come to a stop.
"Well look who's finally awake," his sister giggles. Trying to keep a straight face, she continues with "there better not be any drool on my back."
Looking around, he sees a mountain with trees at the base. With the sun giving the sky a reddish hue, it looks just like his dream. 'This can't be a coincidence,' He murmurs. Shaking off the strange feeling he says, "It's about a day until we get to the tree line. We should try to search for shelter for the night and let the horse, and our backside, rest."
***
Ellis, searching around for shelter, doesn't take notice of his sister. Particularly he doesn't even notice that she has taken the orb out of her bag or that she is in the process of unwrapping it from the cloth she had wrapped around it. When she carefully removes the orb from its covering, it is glowing with a reddish hue. 'Odd' Sophia thinks, 'what is happening?'
"Ellis" she whispers. With no answer, she looks over to see that he is not ever looking her way, but ahead and slightly to either side.
Ellis finally looks to his sister, and replies "Did you call me?" before she can deem a response, he continues on, "uh, sis, your glass thingy is glowing."
Rolling her eyes, she finally gives him a response and an eye roll that says, 'dummy'. Out loud, she says "if you had been paying attention, I had been calling you for the last minute." Resisting urge to roll her eyes again.
"Hey, why are you jumping down my throat, I am trying look for a place to bed down for the night?"
"It's not like your little wolf is going to protect us from predators, with how young she is."
"One: yes, she is young, and two: she is still fierce and can scare off anything that wants to hurt us." Sophia angrily says as she kneels down beside Serena who hasn't left her side, staring out the way they came and whining. Calming her voice, she responds to Serena with, "Hey sweety, what's wrong?" At just that moment, they both hear what sound like an echoing bark and howling.